Bush budget welcomed in Basin

Published Jan. 28, 2004

By DYLAN DARLING

President Bush's proposed increase in federal spending on Klamath Basin water issues was welcomed, sometimes warily, by groups on all sides.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said Tuesday that Bush is calling for about $105 million to be spent on habitat restoration and water improvement projects and programs in the Basin for fiscal year 2005. That would be 21 percent greater than in this fiscal year.

In a telephone interview Tuesday, Norton said the boost in funding was a result of the crisis of 2001. That summer the federal government cut irrigation deliveries to the Klamath Reclamation Project to meet Endangered Species Act requirements.

"Two years ago we were faced with a crisis," she said. "Today we realize that the problem is much more comprehensive."

She said the funds will help solve pieces of the problem, from removing Chiloquin Dam to finding out more about the needs of endangered suckers to aiding the recovery of threatened salmon.

Klamath water users are glad they still have the attention of the White House while the echoes of the summer of 2001 fade, but worry about what the government plans to do with money earmarked for the purchase of land to be turned into wetlands and for leasing of water.

Environmentalists are glad the government is funding conservation programs, but worry about whether the money is being spent wisely.

Norton said the proposed increases come from recommendations in the National Research Council's report on endangered fishes in the Basin. In the report, which came out in October, the council called for more consistent federal financial support for projects throughout the Basin.

Rob Crawford, a member of the Klamath Water Users Association and a Tulelake farmer, said Bush's call for increase in funding looks to be a good, watershedwide approach.

"It turns the corner, where the Klamath project isn't the only focal point," he said.

Expanding the focus of problem-solving has long been a goal of the water users association and its executive director, Dan Keppen.

Keppen said the water users are pleased with the increase in funding because it will put a focus on issues from above Upper Klamath Lake to the Klamath River's mouth at the Pacific Ocean.

But, he said the water users are leery of the expansion of the water bank, in which the government pays irrigators not to use water, and funds set aside for land allocation. While the water bank is part of a short term remedy, he said he didn't see it as part of a long-term solution.

"I just don't think there is very much support in the project for a long-term water bank," he said. "People just want to farm."

Wendell Wood, Southern Oregon field representative of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said he's heartened that the administration sees the need to do more in the Basin, and he hopes the increased funds are used wisely.

He said too often the government puts money into projects that don't end up providing results. He said there are many restoration projects in the Basin that work only part of the year and then dry up.

The solution for the Basin is going to come from more people using less water, Wood said.

"The basic problem is there is too much water promised to too many people," he said.

Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, agrees with Wood.

While the PCFFA welcomes the funding boost for efforts to help threatened coho salmon on the Klamath River, he said the funding doesn't solve the overallocation of water in the Basin.

"This is a good move in the right direction, but it is a small step," he said.

Bill Bettenberg, director of Interior's Office of Policy Analysis, said many of the proposed funding increases came from recommendations made by the various federal agencies in the Basin.

"They are the ones who know the river conditions, the wetland conditions - who know what the available projects are," he said.

Fiscal year 2005 starts on Oct. 1 and Bush's budget proposals need to go through the House and Senate before he signs the final approval On its way through Congress, the proposals can be changed by the lawmakers.

"My guess is Congress will go along with all or most of it," Bettenberg said.

He said, if the budget passes smoothly, then the funds should be finding their way to the Klamath Basin before the end of this year.

Included in President Bush's proposed budget boost for the Klamath Basin are funds to remove Chiloquin Dam.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, said environmental studies on the removal should be done this year, and then next year's budget calls for the actual removal of the dam.

In 2001, Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, introduced legislation to fund a study of fish passage at Chiloquin Dam. Last summer, a working group that included representatives from the Klamath Tribes, irrigators and environmental organizations recommended the dam be removed.

"For years the federal government neglected the obvious problem posed by Chiloquin Dam, so finally moving forward is good news for both farmers and fish," Walden said in a press release Tuesday.

- Dylan Darling